We have calculated the winners for AUTO Connected Car News’ Tech CARS award and the competition has been stronger than previous years. Our readers voted for their favorites which give an excellent view of how well the nominated companies are doing. This year, we will include in our winner announcements why we think that each company won the most votes from our readers. This is the first year we have write-in candidates and comments from voters which gives us a deeper understanding of the voting.

Tech CARS Award for Best Supplier of Telematics Solutions for Insurance, OEMs or Consumers

The winner for best Telematics company is Octo Telematics, the company started as a way for the owner to get better car insurance rates for his wife’s car and now has become an international company providing telematics services.

Octo Telematics has a strong public relations presence and continually posts news releases with information about the company.The company also actively participates in trade shows such as TU Detroit and IOT World. Octo Telematics recently announced that they acquired the Mobility Solutions business of Tecnologie nelle Reti e nei Sistemi T.R.S. S.p.A (TRS to) to provide car sharing through its hardware and software solutions. When we interviewed Octo Telematics USA’s Nino Tarantino, he explained the Octo Telematics works through smartphone apps, OBD port and hard-wired solutions. Solutions include, Octo GLIMPSE, Octo VANTAGE and Octo SURROUND,

Considering the widespread recognition of Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless bought Hughes Telematics a major supplier to automakers. Winning 24% of the popular vote for Octo Telematics shows strong industry recognition by the industry professionals and trust in this award winning company.

The winner of the best new electric vehicle on the market is the Chevrolet Bolt followed closely by the Hyndai Ioniq. The Chevy Bolt has an amazing 238 mile battery range and is the first electric vehicle that is affordable after the federal and other state rebates. The Chevy Bolt offers sporty styling and is extremeenergy efficiency. The Chevy Volt has great pick up with 200 horsepower. However speeders will be disappointed that it can only go a maximum of 91 miles per hour. Though who like to go shopping will find the storage place in the back of the Chevy Volt to be 16.9 cubic feet. The Chevy Bolt also offers a sense of pride, being designed in the united States of America.

Second place goes to the Hyundai Ioniq that received a lot of fervor at the LA Auto Show because it has a brand new way of leasing the vehicle that includes everything including charging. However, we believe that the Hyundai Ioniq battery electric has not received as much good publicity as the Chevy Bolt. The Hyundai Ioniq is reported to get 135.4 electricmiles in the city per battery charge. A major plus that for Hyundai vehicles is the hundred thousand mile warranty.

Tech CARS Award for Best Automotive Chip Maker

The winner for Best Automotive Chip Maker is NVIDIA. NVIDIA has been doing stellar public relations for its automotive products for years. NVIDIA has made a name for itself because it is a supplier for the Tesla Model S. NVIDIA has close relationship with Tesla gives it a proven track record for luxury vehicles. NVIDIA has done excellent job of promoting its products at trade shows such as the Connected Car Expo and CES.

One voter wrote about NVIDIA, “Their interaction with and understanding of the automotive industry noses them ahead of their competitors.”

Second place for Best Automotive Chip Maker goes to Intel. Intel recently made a huge push to get in the automotive market. Intel at the LA Auto Show and Auto Mobility LA had a booth. Intel’s president was a speaker counting all the advantage of Intel’s chipsets. Intel would like to make not only supercomputers for autonomous driving but replace the ECUs with more complex computer chips.

Third place goes to Qualcomm/NXP. Qualcomm recently brought NXP which has been a well-known supplier of automotive grade processors to the industry. Qualcomm has provided an incredible experience in the smartphone sector. Now that vehicles will be connected to cellular data networks, possibly 5G, Qualcomm has a great opportunity to provide chipsets the do everything together on one piece of silicon. We suspect that in the coming year we will hear much more from Qualcomm.

We will be announcing other winners of the AUTO Connected Car News’ Tech CARS Awards in the next few days. Check back for results. If you or your company is a winner please be sure to read rules and permissions‘ guidelines for usage of nominations or winning. Basically, any mention of the AUTO Connected Car News’ The Tech CARS awards should link back to the home page of AUTO Connected Car News.